“BERLIN — Polish authorities used water cannons Tuesday to push back migrants trying to cross the country’s border with Belarus, an escalation they said was overseen by Belarusian forces as part of a deepening battle with the European Union.
Videos posted by Poland’s Ministry of National Defense showed Polish forces spraying water on stone-throwing migrants on the Belarusian side of the Kuznica border crossing. Some migrants pulled aside barbed-wire barriers as Polish authorities played warnings that ‘force may be used’ over loudspeakers. A BBC reporter at the scene said tear gas also was used.
The ministry said that migrants had also been given stun grenades to throw at border guards by Belarusian forces.
‘Today’s attack is being carried out under the strict control of the officers of Belarusian state services,’ the ministry tweeted, showing a video of a uniformed Belarusian guard looking on as men threw projectiles at the fence.” Read more at Washington Post
“A medical examiner testified Tuesday that Ahmaud Arbery, the Black man who was chased and killed while running through a Georgia neighborhood last year, was shot at very close range, potentially boosting the shooter’s self-defense claims.
Edmund Donoghue, who conducted the autopsy, told jurors that Arbery was first shot in the wrist and torso at the same time, indicating that the 25-year-old might have been grabbing Travis McMichael’s firearm. Questioned by prosecutors, Donoghue said the wounds could also be consistent with someone pushing the gun away, leaving some uncertainty about how jurors should interpret the final moments of the shaky cellphone video that thrust this case into the national spotlight.
The testimony came on the final day of the prosecution’s case, as they suggest three White men racially profiled a jogger based on vague suspicions. The defense is expected to begin calling its witnesses Wednesday and argues that the killing occurred when a legitimate citizen’s arrest went awry. Travis McMichael; his father, Greg McMichael; and their neighbor William ‘Roddie’ Bryan have pleaded not guilty to murder, false imprisonment and other charges.” Read more at Washington Post
“KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Jurors weighing charges against Kyle Rittenhouse were to return Wednesday for a second day of deliberations in his murder trial, after they failed to reach a swift verdict on whether he was the instigator in a night of bloodshed in Kenosha or a concerned citizen who came under attack while trying to protect property.
The jury of 12 deliberated for a full day Tuesday without reaching a decision. Several appeared tired as they walked into the courtroom Tuesday evening and indicated with a show of hands that they were ready to go home.
The case went to the anonymous jury after Judge Bruce Schroeder, in an unusual move, allowed Rittenhouse himself to play a minor role in selecting the final panel of 12 who would decide his fate. Rittenhouse reached into a raffle drum and drew numbered slips that determined which of the 18 jurors who sat through the case would deliberate and which ones would be dismissed as alternates.
That task is usually performed by a court clerk, not the defendant. Schroeder said he has been having defendants do it for ‘I’m going to say 20 years, at least.’
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted as charged for using an AR-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two men and wound a third during a night of protests against racial injustice in Kenosha in the summer of 2020. The former police youth cadet is white, as were those he shot.” Read more at AP News
“Kyle Rittenhouse has been a folk hero for the political far right since he was identified in August 2020 as the teenager who killed two people and wounded a third in the Kenosha unrest. His supporters have raised nearly $3 million on his behalf and routinely flood social media to make their case for the 18-year-old’s innocence.
Rittenhouse’s legal team had raised more than $650,000 for his defense as of last month through the ‘‘Free Kyle USA’ website, with messaging that reflects themes typically found in conservative media.
The site names ‘Big Tech, a corrupt media, and dishonest politicians and prosecutors’' as adversaries who are ‘‘trying to censor, silence and ruin the life of Kyle Rittenhouse.’ A slogan, ‘Free Kyle,’ has appeared on clothing and other merchandise sold on the site.” Read more at Boston Globe
“KENOSHA, Wis. — As a jury of 12 Kenosha County residents weighed the fate of Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men and wounded a third amid unrest last summer, Jacob Blake, the man who was partially paralyzed in the police shooting that ignited the protests, was miles away in Chicago, where he undergoes physical therapy in an effort to walk again.
Mr. Blake, 30, has set a goal of walking on his own by next summer, said his uncle, Justin Blake, who has remained on the steps outside the courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., during much of Mr. Rittenhouse’s trial.
‘He has bad days, there’s no doubt, but he’s so grateful to be alive,’ Justin Blake said of Jacob Blake, who, his uncle said, has not been following every turn in the Rittenhouse trial and instead has kept his attention on healing and a new side job, printing T-shirts. ‘He needs to be focusing on himself, focusing on his children and his new normal,’ Justin Blake said.
In August 2020, Jacob Blake was training to become a mechanic and living in Kenosha when a woman with whom he has several children called 911 and said he was about to drive away in her rental car. In minutes, Kenosha police officers arrived at the woman’s home, where the authorities later said they planned to arrest Mr. Blake on an outstanding warrant for a sexual assault charge that was eventually dropped.
When Mr. Blake, who is Black, appeared to try to enter the car as he held a knife in one hand, Rusten Sheskey, a white officer, shot him seven times. Several of Mr. Blake’s children were in the back seat of the car.
The police shooting, which was captured on a bystander video, came during a summer of anger and demonstrations across the country over police violence following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Protests erupted in Kenosha, too, but attention quickly shifted from the shooting of Mr. Blake to the fires and looting that were unfolding in Kenosha.
Only days after Mr. Blake was shot, Mr. Rittenhouse, who lived about 30 minutes away in Antioch, Ill., brought a semiautomatic rifle that was stored in Wisconsin to downtown Kenosha, where he said he wanted to protect businesses and provide medical care.” Read more at New York Times
“U.S. consumer spending is up, boosting the stock market. New data showing strong demand, despite the bite in Americans’ wallets from inflation, raised hopes for the holiday-sales season and lifted U.S. stocks. All three major indexes closed higher Tuesday, with the S&P 500 adding 0.4%, the Dow Jones industrials rising 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gaining 0.8%.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The F.D.A. is planning to authorize Pfizer boosters for all adults as early as tomorrow.” Read more at New York Times
“Pfizer asked the F.D.A. to approve its Covid pill, which studies found greatly reduced the risk of severe infection. The U.S. plans to buy enough for 10 million people.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — Former President Donald J. Trump asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to block the National Archives from giving Congress quick access to records from his White House related to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, arguing that litigation over whether they are properly shielded by his claim of executive privilege should fully play out first.
In a 54-page brief filed before the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Jesse R. Binnall, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, reiterated his argument that the Constitution gives the former president the power to keep those files confidential even though he is no longer in office — and even though President Biden refused to assert executive privilege over them.
‘The stakes in this case are high,’ Mr. Binnall wrote, adding that a decision to uphold Congress’s subpoena over Mr. Trump’s objections would set a precedent that would shift the balance between the legislative and executive branches.” Read more at New York Times
“NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude, the first such sale under President Joe Biden and a harbinger of the challenges he faces to reach climate goals that depend on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
The livestreamed sale invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across some 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) — about twice the area of Florida.
It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The auction comes after a federal judge in a lawsuit brought by Republican states rejected a suspension of fossil fuel sales that Biden imposed when he took office.
The Democrat campaigned on promises to curb fossil fuels from public lands and waters, which including coal account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Yet even as he’s tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening international efforts against global warming, Wednesday’s sale illustrates Biden’s difficulties gaining ground on climate issues at home.
The administration last week proposed another round of oil and gas lease sales in 2022, in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and other western states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON — House Democrats plan to move on Wednesday to formally rebuke Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, and strip him of committee assignments for posting an animated video depicting him killing a Democratic congresswoman and attacking President Biden.
Democratic leaders intend to hold a vote to censure Mr. Gosar — the most severe punishment in the House of Representatives short of expulsion — and oust him from his seats on the House Oversight and Natural Resources Committees. The action comes a week after he used his official social media accounts to circulate a video clip from a popular anime program altered to show a figure with Mr. Gosar’s face slashing the neck of another figure bearing the face of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York.
It also showed his character swinging swords at Mr. Biden.
‘That is an insult — not only an endangerment of that member of Congress — but an insult to the institution’ of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters on Tuesday. ‘We cannot have members joking about murdering each other, as well as threatening the president of the United States.’
Mr. Gosar has not apologized and instead played down the video, claiming in a statement that it was ‘truly a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy’ and saying he would not ‘espouse violence or harm toward any member of Congress.’ He has privately blamed aides for posting the video.” Read more at New York Times
“One of America's strictest mask mandates is about to end, reports Axios D.C. co-author Chelsea Cirruzzo.
The big picture: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser cited vaccines for declining hospitalizations and deaths.
When D.C.'s order lifts Monday, masks will still be required in schools, public transportation, nursing homes and D.C. government facilities where workers are directly working with the public.
Between the lines: D.C. is still in what the CDC calls ‘substantial transmission’ of more than 50 cases per 100,000 people per day.
‘We've moved away from this goal of getting to zero cases of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 in our community,’ said health director LaQuandra Nesbitt.
The bottom line: Local leaders hope President Biden will now call federal workers back into the office to jump-start the city's recovery, notes Axios D.C. co-author Cuneyt Dil.” Read more at Axios
Photo: Charles Krupa/AP
“Michelle Wu — with her sons, Blaise and Cass, and husband, Conor Pewarski — is sworn in as Boston mayor during a ceremony at Boston City Hall.
Wu is the first woman and person of color elected the city's mayor, notes Axios' Shawna Chen.” Read more at Axios
“Armenia-Azerbaijan tensions. Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a cease-fire along their border, Armenia’s defense ministry reported on Tuesday, following periodic exchanges of fire since a six-week conflict ended last year. The Russian-mediated agreement came after a deadly clash over the weekend which killed one Armenian soldier and led to the capture of 12 others. Before Tuesday’s agreement was reached, each country blamed the other for instigating the weekend’s violence.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Pinera holds on. An impeachment attempt against Chilean President Sebastian Pinera ended late Tuesday night after opposition Senators failed to garner enough votes for a trial to go forward. Pinera had been impeached by the lower house last week over allegations that he had facilitated a family property deal using his presidential powers, a case given new life when the terms of the sale were revealed in the Pandora Papers.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“The world has 200 million fewer tobacco smokers than at the same point in 2015, the World Health Organization reported on Tuesday, as it praised countries for pursuing policies to cut back on smoking. Of the 1.3 billion still lighting up, 37 percent are men and just 8 percent are women, according to the report. If trends continue, smoking may become extinct in many Western countries, including the United States, by 2050, according to some estimates.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“The United States and its allies accounted for a significantly outsize share of global democratic backsliding in the past decade, according to a new analysis.
US allies remain, on average, more democratic than the rest of the world. But nearly all have suffered a degree of democratic erosion since 2010, meaning that core elements like election fairness or judicial independence have weakened, and at rates far outpacing average declines among other countries.
With few exceptions, US-aligned countries saw almost no democratic growth in that period, even as many beyond Washington’s orbit did.
The findings are reflected in data recorded by V-Dem, a Sweden-based nonprofit that tracks countries’ level of democracy across a host of indicators, and analyzed by The New York Times.” Read more at Boston Globe
“BEIJING (AP) — China and the U.S. have agreed to ease restrictions on each other’s journalists amid a slight relaxation of tensions between the two sides.
The official China Daily newspaper on Wednesday said the agreement was reached ahead of Tuesday’s virtual summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden.
The agreement represents a degree of progress on an issue that has long aggravated relations, but details remain to be ironed out. COVID-19 travel restrictions and long-standing obstacles faced by foreign media within China are also factors standing in the way of a major breakthrough in media relations.
Under the agreement, the U.S. will issue one-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese journalists and will immediately initiate a process to address ‘duration of status’ issues, China Daily said. China will reciprocate by granting equal treatment to U.S. journalists once the U.S. policies take effect, and both sides will issue media visas for new applicants ‘based on relevant laws and regulations,’ the report said.” Read more at AP News
“Islamic extremist violence is ravaging Burkina Faso, killing thousands and displacing more than 1 million people.
And people are going missing. Reports of missing relatives quadrupled from 104 to 407 between 2019 and 2020, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which defines a missing person as someone whose whereabouts cannot be accounted for and requires state intervention.” Read more at AP News
“Dutch divorce | Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden called the Netherlands Prime Minister on Sunday with some bad news: Europe’s biggest oil company was moving its headquarters to London to simplify its corporate structure and cut taxes for investors, and was dropping Royal Dutch from its name.” Read more at Bloomberg
“The decked-out corner office for executives was already dying, but is now getting even scarcer, Erica Pandey writes for Axios What's Next.
Why it matters: As hybrid and remote work become more common, the office is becoming a destination for collaboration. Meeting rooms and open plan, café-like seating areas are replacing offices. Where you sit and work no longer denotes your place in the hierarchy.
What's happening: 60% of firms are redesigning their offices for the COVID era, according to a new report from commercial real estate firm CBRE, which surveyed big companies around the world.
Our old idea of private offices — earmarked for one person and decorated with framed family photos — is disappearing. Companies are replacing those with call rooms or study rooms that anyone can reserve as needed.
A quarter are eliminating private offices entirely.
The firms that are holding onto private offices are downsizing them. Around 80% are limiting them to 149 square feet or smaller.
‘People are choosing to do their heads-down work at home,’ says CBRE's Susan Wasmund, lead author of the report.
Companies are giving the square footage they're taking away from private offices to meeting rooms of all shapes and sizes.
And they're adding amenities to make workers' time in the office worthwhile — auditoriums, outdoor spaces and baristas.
Investment banks and law firms will likely be among the last private-office holdouts, retaining some aspects of formal office trappings.
One more new trend: In the past, workers had to submit requests — and often provide medical reasons — to get standing desks. Now, 65% of firms say offering a sitting and standing option is standard.” Read more at Axios
“Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic are the latest top athletes to voice concerns about the safety of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who has not been heard from since accusing China's former vice premier of sexual assault on Nov. 2.
The allegations on Peng's social media page were removed within minutes, and China's state-controlled media has suppressed all reporting on the case.
Tennis authorities have called for a full investigation into the allegations by the two-time Grand Slam doubles champion.” Read more at Axios
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — Miramax filed a lawsuit Tuesday against director Quentin Tarantino over the director’s plans to create and auction off a series of NFTs based on his work on ‘Pulp Fiction.’
The entertainment company alleges that Tarantino’s planned offerings violate the copyrights it holds to the director’s 1994 film, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles.
Tarantino recently announced plans to sell seven NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which are digital works rendered unique and attached to a specific owner through cryptocurrency technology.
The NFTs to go on sale next month include scanned digital copies of handwritten script pages for uncut versions of scenes from the film, with audio commentary and other elements. Each will also include ‘secret’ aspects accessible only to the owner.” Read more at AP News
“STURGIS, Mich. (AP) — A 10-point buck sought sanctuary inside a southern Michigan church on opening day of the state’s firearm deer hunting season.
Pastors at Grace Sturgis encountered the buck inside the church’s auditorium on Monday before it leapt through a window and back into the wild.
A video the church posted on Facebook shows the buck wandering around the church. Pastors Amanda and Luke Eicher and Justin Wickey erected barricades in a hallway to try to keep the animal from the rest of the church. At one point, it climbed stairs to a balcony.
‘I was just shocked by how high he could jump,’ Amanda Eicher said. ‘I was amazed at how big he was.’
The buck didn’t appear to have any gunshot wounds and was bleeding just a bit from what appeared to be cuts from the glass, she told the Kalamazoo Gazette. Besides the broken window, the only other damage was blood stains on the carpet.” Read more at AP News
“Lives Lived: Ed Bullins, a leading playwright in the Black Arts Movement, wrote for the strivers, hustlers and quiet sufferers whose struggles he sought to capture. He died at 86.” Read more at New York Times
“A self-portrait by Frida Kahlo, an artist known for her raw emotional intensity, sold for $34.9 million at Sotheby’s on Tuesday night, setting an auction benchmark for the most expensive artwork by a Latin American artist.
Completed five years before her death in 1954, the oil painting, ‘Diego and I,’ is one of Kahlo’s final self-portraits and an example of the unsettling intimacy that has attracted collectors to her paintings. The work offers a window into her turbulent marriage with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who is depicted in it just above the artist’s tearful eyes.
In setting a new high for a Latin American artist at auction, Kahlo surpassed a benchmark set by Rivera in 2018, when one of his paintings sold at auction for $9.76 million — or the equivalent of $10.75 million today, accounting for inflation.
A Sotheby’s spokesman identified painting’s buyer as Eduardo F. Costantini, the founder of a museum in Buenos Aires. The work was purchased for his private collection. The spokesman declined to reveal the identity of the seller.” Read more at New York Times
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